Riverside gets good deal for welcome signs

For $24,000, Riverside will get one complete welcome sign plus all the bricks for all three planned signs. Details were presented to the city council Monday by Jim Leyden of the city’s Community Visioning Committee.
Results of the Community Visioning process showed the need for three signs for the city (east, west and south) and Monday Leyden said that purchasing all the bricks at one time would mean 15 cents per brick, rather than 50 cents each. The $24,000 price tag ( half of the $48,000 original estimate) also gets a lot of landscaping, trees, flowers and grading for the first sign, he noted.
The first sign is on city property; the other two will e on private property, he added. There also will be donated labor and lighting for the signs will be done by Jim Rose at actual cost.
The council approved the move that likely will see the signs done next spring.
The council also received a report from council member Todd Yahnke that the special committee recomends using the $100,000 from Invasion Iowa to purchase a site for a Riverside community building. An ideal site would be land on Schnoebelen Street which would put the building near the Riverside Elementary School.
In regard to another land issue, the council accepted Dave Schmidt’s rescinding of his offer to purchase a plot in the city owned Commercial Park. The $70,000 3/4 acre parcel was to be site of Good Spirits Express, a liquor store. However, Schmidt, the former Washington School District superintendent, said in his November 13 letter that he and his wife were unable to secure a Small Business Administration loan for the project.
In other business, the council:

• were asked b y former Planning and Zoning Commission member Joan Bex to put the second reading of the zoning ordinance on the next meeting agenda. She said that the P & Z “feel like we beat our heads against the wall for nothing because you haven’t done anything.” A key issue involved Bruce Duling’s conversion of the former St. Mary’s parochial school in apartments and a possible change in his zoning from R2 to R3. The second reading, the council agreed, will be on the next agenda;
• approved a tax abatement for Fae Streb;
• approved payment number 4 to Metro Pavers for $2,565;
• approved a resolution to pay off the 2002 GO sewer debt (initially $365,00) in the amount of $130,000 and the principal and interest on the 2007 GO fire station debt ($1.1 million) in the amount of $210,987.50;
• approved a resolution to waive review of the plant for auditor’s parcel H (Jay and Lori Stuelke);
• discussed having speed bumps on Schnoebelen Street, where the elementary school is, to slow traffic or having speed cushions. A motion to get a 7 foot speed bump at a cost of $2,768 was approved;
• discussed light poles for he industrial park, especially having ones that would follow what was recommended by the Visioning Committee;
• discussed snow removal from a private contractor for the Senior Village and city worker Brad Herig asked City Administrator/city clerk Tina Thomas to send a letter to the Village regarding snow removal and tearing up sod in the park;
• approved repairing curbs in the Sycamore/Blackberry Avenue areas for an estimated cost of $4,400;
• approved purchasing a concrete saw from Jim’s Small Engine Repair at a cos of $918; and
• approved purchase of a 3-ft trash pump, at a cost of $1,106 and $2,000 for truck liners to help extend the longevity of the truck beds.